Monthly Archives: April 2012

Nobody said being a wind turbine technician was easy. First, there is the training program you must go through. Training can be hard because of the subject matter. A traditional power plant will have maintenance technicians, mechanics, electrical technicians, instrument technicians, and several other job titles specific to a certain function. With a wind turbine technician, all of that knowledge is rolled into one job description.

It can also be physically hard. Have you ever climbed a 26 story ladder? If you become a wind turbine technician you will. Do you deal well with heights? You absolutely cannot have a fear of heights in this job. Still, if you can overcome all of these challenges, a very lucrative career is waiting for you. Let’s take a look at an average day in the life of a wind turbine technician.

Today the Obama administration announced an agreement that would speed up approval and help expedite the construction of offshore wind turbines across the Great Lakes region. This new, faster regulatory review aims to quicken the pace of offshore wind farm development without sacrificing safety and environmental concerns, which are always of the utmost importance when new wind farm locations are assessed. Five of the states surrounding the Great Lakes region have already signed the agreement – Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York and Pennsylvania. The other states in the region – Illinois, Ohio and Wisconsin – have not signed the agreement but still could at a later time.

The agreement is not a simple one. More than ten federal agencies are involved, including the Pentagon, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Any new construction would also have to be approved by the federal government and the state in which the wind turbine resides, since states own the land beneath the Great Lakes up to the international border with Canada. This deal is not unprecedented, however. A similar deal was struck to facilitate construction of offshore wind turbines across the Atlantic coast, so there is good reason to believe these Great Lakes projects will happen at some point.